Helena (SF Roman)
Helena is a character that appears in the 1978 light novel Cyborg 009: SF Roman, written by Akiyoshi Sakai. She is somewhat of a merger between the characters of Helena and Helen, fulfilling similar roles that both play. Appearance In her initial appearance as a human, Helena has long, wavy strawberry blonde hair. She wears a long blue dress with a white belt and ruffled collar. Her eyes are a sparkly black color. Later in the novel, she is revealed to have been remodeled into a cyborg by Skull and the brains of Black Ghost. She now has shorter, spiked-up blonde hair and wears a white gown and jeweled tiara, and golden bands around her arms and wrists. Personality Helena appears to be an innocent, kind girl, though driven by her anger and hatred towards the Black Ghost organization, who abducted her older brother. 009 becomes enamored with due to her reminding him of his childhood friend Midori Aoba, who had died in a hit-and-run accident. She becomes attached to 009 in turn, with him coming to her defense in spite of the other 00 cyborgs' constant suspicion towards her. But as the story proceeds, Helena's motivations appear to become shady, leading to confusion from 009 of whose side she is actually on. In the end, Helena is proven to be innocent of the accusations, but she has also become a pawn of the Black Ghost and is devastated to learn what they have done to her brother. Abilities As with her counterpart in Monster Wars, the extent of Helena's abilities and remodeling are unknown. History Helena was first discovered drowning in the ocean after a Soviet surveillance boat was destroyed in a shoot-out of Black Ghost ships against the Poseidon. After being rescued by 009, she revealed herself to be from the Soviet Union, and that her older brother Petrov had planned to defect to the United States. Having learned that Black Ghost had abducted her brother and thus fearing him to have been killed, she was adamant on trying to take them down and 009 let her stay on the Poseidon. However, due to suspicions raised by 004, Helena was believed to be a spy and was sent out into the ocean with limited oxygen to test if she was an enemy cyborg. This caused friction between 009 and 004, who argued over the ethics of the test and her life. Helena was allowed to remain on the journey with the team, although suspicion about her remained, particularly from a jealous 003 who was determined to prove that Helena was a spy and did not belong with them. Further incidents on the Poseidon increased suspicion towards Helena, particularly 001 winding up stabbed and nearly dying (though healing himself), and the Poseidon's anti-supersonic wave cannon device being destroyed. After the team discovered Black Ghost's underground base and had to fight the 0011 twins, Helena disappeared. 009 managed to find her after the battle and went up against her, convinced that she was 0010 and had set them up for death. After being shot by 009, Helena fell into a chasm. 009 then wound up distraught after hearing the other team members' comments on her, believing to have killed her and having regretted doing so. When the Poseidon was later destroyed by a Cyborg Man and 009 was believed dead, having gone missing in aftermath of the disaster, Helena had managed to rescue him, and was revealed to have been remodeled into a cyborg by Black Ghost after she had gone missing in the chasm. The Black Ghost organization opted to exploit her despair at having been hurt by the 00 cyborgs to turn her against them, but her anger at Black Ghost for Petrov's abduction had overridden any negative feelings towards the team. In the meantime, the rest of the 00 team and Dr. Gilmore had been captured by Skull. In the end, Helena wound up discovering that her brother Petrov was the one that had been converted into Cyborg 0010. During the battle between 009 and 0010, Helena threw herself in the way, sacrificing herself and winding up burnt by her brothers' heat powers. Both siblings were then killed from hitting up against the electromagnetic fence of the cell where Dr. Gilmore and the other cyborgs were detained, although this freed the captives. It was revealed that 003's negativity towards Helena had been exploited by Black Ghost, with them psychically manipulating her from afar and causing her to stab 001 and destroy the ship's protection against the supersonic wave cannons. This in turn brought Helena further into Black Ghost's trap. After the defeat of the Black Ghost organization, 009 mourned Helena, but realized that it was her love for world peace that played a part in him being able to defeat them for once and for all. Gallery Helena SFRoman.png|Helena, with Joe. Notes * Helena's civilian appearance loosely resembles that of Romy Lorelei from "The Song of Lorelei", although her eyes and her hair style are somewhat different. Her cyborg appearance is directly lifted from the Mythos arc Helena, and by extension the Helena from "Monster Wars". * Helena's storyline also seems to take cues from "Monster Wars", with a change on the twist: Instead of her being Cyborg 0010, it is instead her brother Petrov (whose powers were modeled after Apollo). While Helena and Apollo's pre-cyborg lives were unstated in the manga, Helena and Petrov are stated to have been Russian civilians, with Petrov having been a pilot. * While Helena is not directly given a cyborg number, it can be figured that she may be 0012, in light of her brother being 0010 and the 0011 number belonging to a pair of twins. * Though other incarnations of Helena do not have their age stated, this version is stated to have just turned 20 years old, while 009 is stated to be 23. Category:Female characters Category:Deceased Characters Category:Light Novel Characters Category:Cyborgs